Industrial controllers and their associated I/O devices are central to the operation of modern automation systems. These controllers interact with field devices on the plant floor to control automated processes relating to such objectives as product manufacture, material handling, batch processing, supervisory control, and other such applications. Industrial controllers store and execute user-defined control programs to effect decision-making in connection with the controlled process. Such programs can include, but are not limited to, ladder logic, sequential function charts, function block diagrams, structured text, or other such programming structures. In general, industrial controllers read input data from sensors and metering devices that provide discreet and telemetric data regarding one or more states of the controlled system, and generate control outputs based on these inputs in accordance with the user-defined program.
In addition to industrial controllers and their associated I/O devices, some industrial automation systems may also include low-level control systems, such as vision systems, barcode marking systems, variable frequency drives, industrial robots, and the like which perform local control of portions of the industrial process, or which have their own localized control systems.
The collection of industrial devices making up a given industrial automation system is constantly in flux. As a result of system expansions, maintenance concerns, and device upgrades, industrial devices are continually being added, removed, switched, and replaced. This dynamic device movement often requires considerable labor and downtime to ensure that new devices are properly integrated and represented within the system. This includes not only ensuring that the new device is correctly configured to perform its role within the industrial system, but also that the new device interacts properly with other devices in the system. Moreover, applications that rely on data generated by the industrial devices (e.g., reporting applications, human-machine interfaces, enterprise resource planning systems, etc.) must be reconfigured to incorporate the new device.
The above-described deficiencies of today's industrial control and business systems are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional systems, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with conventional systems and corresponding benefits of the various non-limiting embodiments described herein may become further apparent upon review of the following description.